Mark W.
Yelp
Goodbye Cafe Beaujolais. An old favorite has gone very much to seed. Like visiting a long loved friend for the last time in the hospital, on some level you wish you hadn't gone, so you could always remember them as they had been in better days,
When we moved to the Eaglerock area 14 years ago, our realtor took us to this "sweet french place nearby" to celebrate our finally closing the deal and moving into our new and now current home. During dinner she said "isn't this place great!? A hidden gem" We didn't have the heart to tell her that she wasn't turning us onto her secret restaurant. She was taking us to a place we already knew and loved, it's existence being one of the reasons we wanted to move to the neighborhood. Over the years we have come back several times. The cozy space and the lovely quiet ambiance has always made for a memorable evening. The food was always good, solid old school french standards; escargots, onion soup, steak au poivre... Never exceptional, but always solid.
Last week four of us went back to Cafe B to celebrate a birthday. Sadly everything, I mean everything, we ordered was of sub par quality, as well as being quite overpriced. (I know inflation, but still). We ordered escargot (surprisingly bland) an endive salad with roquefort cheese featured as an ingredient (cheese was so scant as to be almost an omission, we had to ask for more) three steaks for entrees; one rare, two medium rare, all were over cooked. Pretty sad, especially at
$ 40.00 apiece, also a $51.00 of very mediocre red wine. Dessert, which was pretty much the highlight of the meal, was also relatively mediocre, the creme brûlée ( a solid 3 out of 5, compared to the many 4's and 5's served at a lot of other local restaurants) an apple crumble with housemade ice cream, I'll give it a 4 to be nice, and a very mediocre chocolate mousse (2-3)
Over all it was an absolutely lack luster meal. At $ 300.00 for dinner for (4) it was unfortunately very much not worth it.
It hurts to say this, but good bye old friend, Turns out that last week was to be our last meal together. I'll do my best to forget all of that night's disappointments and try to think only of the much better times we have had together in the past. Unless there are some very radical changes planned for Cafe B in the near future, I cannot imagine it will be open much longer. Too bad. I know that many of us have very fond memories of Cafe B when it was what it once was. Anyone have a suggestion of an alternative for us to try.
PS the service was fine, our waiter was great. Near the end he apologized to us, as he could tell, without any comment from us, that we were very much underwhelmed.
PPS I'm sorry to those of you at Cafe B that this review may effect negatively. I mean no harm, but my review is honest and I have a feeling that you know that it is. You can turn this around, but you have bring the love back to the food, you can taste it's no longer there.